Building and Maintaining Effective Firewall Configurations

Randy George09/01/13

Building and Maintaining Effective Firewall Configurations

Perimeter defense will always be a hot-button topic in the security world, and for good reason: Perimeter defenses are our first and often most effective way to block an attack from reaching the internal network. And while deploying a robust perimeter defense isn’t rocket science, it’s not exactly child’s play, either. From both a strategic and operational perspective, effective perimeter security is a complex and constantly evolving animal. To do it right requires daily attention.

Many enterprises fail to configure their firewalls properly when they are installed, or they fail to check and maintain those configurations as they change over time. As a result, many enterprises are left with major vulnerabilities in their defenses, and attackers are able to simply bypass the firewall to get the information they want. In this Dark Reading report, we discuss methods for configuring firewalls correctly in the first place, and for monitoring firewall configuration and change to ensure that new openings haven’t been created in enterprise defenses. (S7350913)